The Longest Name
by Artemis J. Halk
Summary: Part 6/? of my "All Grown Up" series. Tom and Sabine give Adrien the best gift ever (aside from their daughter, that is).


Just a little bit of goofy happiness for everybody's favorite cinnamon roll.

Thanks to an anon for catching my major gaffe of misspelling part of Marinette's surname. Whoops...

* * *

"Son, there's something that Sabine and I would like to discuss with you," Tom started one afternoon. Adrien's stomach flipped over unpleasantly. In his opinion, nothing good ever followed those words. Tom saw the look on Adrien's face and offered the younger man a friendly smile. "Don't worry, please! It's nothing bad, I promise!"

He poked his head out into the front room. Marinette was rearranging a display of her latest fashion creation in the front window, and Sabine was flipping absently through a gossip magazine. The bakery was otherwise deserted, as was the street outside.

"We're going to have a family meeting," he said to the women in his life.

"Okay?" Marinette said with some confusion. She left the hat down at the feet of the mannequin and followed her mom back into the bakery. Sabine was quiet, having already discussed things with her husband beforehand.

Marinette got an uneasy feeling in her stomach when she saw Adrien. "What's going on?" she asked as she went to stand by his side.

"Adrien, it's been a year and a half since Marinette asked me if I'd be willing to take you on as an apprentice. Now normally, I think that it would take a lot longer for you to be considered finished with your training. However, you are exceptionally dedicated to learning. And, as Marinette promised, you are an exceptional study," Tom said slowly.

He and Sabine exchanged a quiet look. "We discussed this a lot, and we got this for you," she said and she pulled an envelope out from behind one of the tables. She handed it to Adrien, who quickly opened it and pulled out a diploma-type piece of paper.

"'This is a certificate of completion of training'," Adrien read.

"Oh Adrien!" Marinette exclaimed as she threw her arms around her boyfriend. He was standing in shock and just staring at the diploma that they'd ordered for him.

"Thank you," Adrien said quietly after a while. "This really means a lot to me. And I mean it! I don't know what I would have done if not for this apprenticeship."

"Of course, son," Tom said as he clapped Adrien on the shoulder in a friendly way. "You make our daughter very happy. And I know that things have been rough what with her shop going under, but that was just a blemish. Consider this part of trying to brighten up your future a little bit. There's more, too."

"There's more?" Adrien asked, a little gobsmacked. What more could Tom and Sabine possibly give to him?

Tom and Sabine exchanged another look. "We'd like to change the name of the bakery to reflect this," Sabine said with a big smile on her face.

Marinette and Adrien just stared at them with their jaws slack. "Maman, are you serious?!" Marinette finally squeaked out.

"Of course we are. We didn't quite know what we were going to do with the bakery as we got older. Hire somebody to take over for us, sell it to the highest bidder, watch as somebody tore our lives work down and put in a Starbucks or who knows what…" She trailed off and offered them a sweet smile. "Adrien was the answer to that."

"We really didn't want to sell the bakery, and we hated the thought of it leaving the family," Tom went on. "And we know how much that you love fashion, and we couldn't force you to take over, or make that decision for us if something were to happen to us."

"Jeez, papa, I had no idea that you guys were seriously thinking about stuff like that," Marinette said quietly.

"That's why I was so happy to take Adrien on as an apprentice," Tom said with a smile. He looked over to Adrien. "What do you say? Dupain-Cheng-Agreste Boulangerie Patisserie."

Marinette giggled slightly. "It's a bit of a mouthful, don't you think? Shouldn't there be an 'and' in there somewhere?"

"Hey, instead of you changing your name when we get married, just keep it," Adrien said to Marinette. "And then we can just tack on -Agreste to Dupain-Cheng for our children."

"Oh, wait wait wait!" Marinette exclaimed, her eyes wide with excitement. "Our Dupain-Cheng-Agreste child can get married to Camille Césaire-Lahiffe, but not change their names, and then their baby can be Dupain-Cheng-Agreste-Césaire-Lahiffe!"

They were both roaring with laugher over that.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad of an idea, is it?" Tom said with some hurt in his voice.

"It's a kind gesture, but I think that adding in a simple 'and' would do wonders," Marinette told him gently.

"Actually, I'm very flattered by the offer," Adrien said quietly. "But I'd rather not have my name up on the bakery at all."

"What? Why not?" Sabine asked.

"It's because of my father…" Adrien started, and Marinette gasped with understanding.

"No, no, it's fine," she whispered quickly to him.

Adrien was still trying to escape from his past as a model and the fact of his father's company. Every now and then, somebody came into the bakery and asked if he was the model. Adrien always denied it, stating that "he got that a lot". It didn't happen often, but Marinette always knew that it ate him up inside.

Tom and Sabine were quiet for a moment as they mulled this over. "Dupain-Cheng Family Boulangerie Patisserie," Tom finally said.

They'd thought that Adrien's smile had been huge when they'd given him the diploma, but it was nothing in comparison to now. "I love it," he said as he fought back tears.

"Come here!" Tom said. He easily pulled all three of them into his arms for a hug.

"Oh, I've got to go redesign the shop logo!" Marinette exclaimed as she pulled away from everybody. She dashed upstairs to the residence area.

Tom and Sabine pulled away from Adrien, and looked at him firmly. "Now that she's distracted, we need to discuss something else," Tom said, all business.

Adrien swallowed hard, because he knew what was coming.

"Now that your apprenticeship is over and you're a full baker now, we expect for you to make an honest woman out of our daughter!" Tom said seriously.

"And we want grandchildren!" Sabine continued. "We're not getting any younger, you see!"

* * *

Yes, that baby belongs to who you think it belongs to!

Anyway, this hasn't been proofread, so if you spotted any errors, let me know so that I can fix it!

Please take a second to leave kudos and/or a review if you enjoyed this! They really make my day!


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